Bones set visit with David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel

Professional TV junky Deanna Barnert covers all corner of Tinseltown but good television is her passion. Visiting sets, interviewing industry players and critiquing the final product are all in a day's work, as is losing an evening or a...

"Welcome to Bones, SheKnows"

Bones stars David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel preview the new season as SheKnows hangs out on the set of Bones!

SheKnows on set

We got the questioning started at FBI headquarters, where the first order of business was romance, not crime. The Bones season finale delivered a much anticipated hook up between Brennan
and Booth… and then he woke up!

"You don't know whether it was his coma or Brennan's books or both," Emily Deschanel says -- but while it was all "just" a fantasy,
the results will be very real.

"The relationship has evolved because of that experience," promises creator/exec producer Hart Hanson. "They look at each other differently and it's quite evident, especially in the first
episode."

Hart wouldn't weigh in on whether he thinks Brennan and Booth are destined to be more than partners, but admits he enjoys the split the topic has caused among fans.

"This sounds awful, but when the audience fights amongst itself, I feel like we've done something right." he says. "If everybody loved everything all the time, they would be bored in a
season."

Speaking of seasons, the new one kicks off Thursday, September 17, and SheKnows knows what's coming!

Bones: starting over

The action picks up six weeks later. We find Brennan has been off at a dig in Guatemala, while Booth has been fighting to recover his memory. Finally cleared to resume active duty, he's anxious to
get back to work... but still not quite himself.

"We have a great part in this first episode with the socks, which he doesn't remember wearing," Boreanaz says of his character. "He has a memory of certain things, but is not as adept at other
things as he thought he was. For example, in the last episode we shot, he can't remember how to plumb his own kitchen sink. Brennan is like, 'Why don't you just do it? You're so adept.'
Yeah, well, that was before the coma!

"I have to re-visit things that Booth is very good at and that allows the character to examine where he's at and if he likes doing it," he continues. "We will slowly see that develop through
the episodes."

Booth will also be reexamining his feelings for Brennan -- and in the premiere, guest star Cyndi Lauper (seen below) will make things a bit more interesting on that front. She shows up offering
information about 11 buried bodies, but also gives Booth an earful about him and Brennan!

While Boreanaz is enjoying Booth's arc of rediscovery, Deschanel continues to enjoy playing a quirky oddball who has no idea what's happening in the mainstream.

"Brennan's filled her brain with entirely useful information that she uses in her day to day life -- why would she fill it with anything frivolous like Britney Spears?" Deschanel asks with a laugh.
"That's one thing that I love about my character, but at the same time, I love the contradictions. That from time to time, Brennan does know certain things, like she's a fan of John
Wayne and knew who Stewie was from Family Guy. We all have people in our lives that surprise us -- and that makes her human. "

Deschanel will get to push Brennan's boundaries this season by working more with Booth's FBI folks, but hopes there will also be some fun undercover work.

"David and I love doing those episodes because you get to see a different side of the characters," she raves. "I loved the high wire act in the circus episode especially, because Brennan is not
someone who gets carried away with things, so you would not expect her to enjoy performing like that!"

With talk of undercover work, the interview quickly dissolves into a "remember when" session between Deschanel, Boreanaz and show-runners Hanson and Stephen Nathan. As they tease, poke and laugh,
it's clear this is a collaborative team that has as much fun creating Bones as fans have watching it.

Bones Lab check

After my time with the FBI, I walked over to another stage to check out the Jeffersonian Institute, home base for Brennan and her team of "squints."

The institute takes up an entire stage at Fox studios in Century City and it was interesting to see how it was laid out -- but to be honest, it all looked much as expected: massive, shiny and very,
very cool.

The best parts of the visit were getting to handle the bones, which aren't real of course, and spying on Tamara Taylor (Camille), John Francis Daley (Sweets) and TJ Thyne (Hodgins) at work!

The trio was shooting a scene from this season's third episode, The Plain in the Prodigy (all the show titles are in the "The X in the Y" format) -- and even though I could hear without a
headset, I was provided one, along with the day's sides (a tiny printout of the script).

Instead of reading along, I kept my eyes on the monitor and what I thought were the sound feeds as I listened to Sweets surprise his coworkers by solving the riddle of rocks before them.
(You'll have to wait a few weeks to understand that -- sorry!)

I should add that before leaving, I got a tutorial from the man in charge, who explained I'd been looking at lighting feeds, not the sound. Oops! Guess I'm not yet ready for a job on the
crew…

But I am ready for the season of Bones, which premieres September 17 at 8 pm!